I am ReigningStill: Mates

Since G.p dragged me out of the house for some for some late night caffeine boost, I’m all up and kicking now. Goodluck work!

Anyway, remember that Luau themed party I hosted last April?! As I’ve told you , I helped some friends come up with their outfits. So it means a week worth of shopping – Landmark, SM Makati and Glorietta to the max!

Sadly, it also means a week-worth of boosting their confidence. My friends are the prettiest in the office. Coming from someone who’s uber laitera, it should mean a lot! But they are also the shy type and their confidence are below sea level. Honest! So I’m very much happy that I was able to help them improve their fashion sense and at the same time, helped them love and appreciate their body as well as their beauty. Fashion godmother ang peg!!

So while I discuss the laborious styling that I did for my friends (insert sheepish grin here), let me also give you some tips on Luau styling. Feelingera much! Eh blog ko to bakit ba?!

My fashion guinea pigs! (L – R) Nikki, Cor, Jin, Me and Aem

When they heard Luau, my friends immediately thought of flowery dresses! Can’t blame them. Everyone does. And so… here’s my first Luau Tip:

Luau DOESN’T necessarily mean flower power! You may opt for other prints as well. Animal prints would also look great in Luau Party. Just choose the perfect dress style and accessorize.

The Girls! (L – R) Nikki, Kalli, Allaine, Me, Dhaye, Cor, Jin, Aem, MK, Joyce and Pam.

Note that we opted for a long flowy dress on animal prints for Cor. Also, her dress got that cute chest detail which looks so chic and very “I’m off for the beach!” hype. Perfect for Luau. Another great example is our fashyown friend Joyce who went all Zebra’ey on her long dark brown dress. Very gorgeous. Just one more extra tip for those who’ll go for animal prints, make sure you choose earth colors or better stay on the black and white side. Animal prints plus vibrant colors is a no-no! Teh! Circus ang peg natin?!

For Nikki and Jin, we also ditched the flower pattern but went for colors instead! And then another fashion tip:

DO choose fun colors but never too much. If your prints are large, make sure that there are only one to two major colors on the pattern. Nothing too much. If you want mini prints, make sure that the pattern is not on the dizzy side. And the colors on the mini prints are on the same color template.

Nikki on her blue long dress. The prints are kinda large but it sticks on the blue color palette.

Jin on her yellow printed dress. Jin has fair complexion and so this dress suits her.

The problem with Luau is that they could easily make you look like a Bed Sheet, Sofa Covers or the typical, curtains! Really, the trick here is choosing the prints and the colors. One wrong move and you’ll be a walking Sofa all night which we all doesn’t want. So if you’re quite a bit hesitant on the prints that you want, you may ditch the prints and go for colors like what I did. Colorful striped top shouts Luau as well. But if you’ll find a piece that has both colors and lovely prints, then by all means GO!

Cor wants a long dress while Jin wants a short one. So what’s the best dress length for Luau?

DO make sure that you either wear an ankle-length flowy dress or above the knee or knee-length dress. Nothing in between. No Midi’s. PLEASE!

Another major fashion fail for Luau is wearing Midi’s. Luau dresses, specially if they are flowery has the big tendency to look like your Mom’s duster! So it’s best if you wear an ankle-length dress or if you want to show off your newly waxed legs, wear something that shows your knee.

While most petite girls are not encouraged to wear long dresses, there are styles that would look good on them. See Cor for example. She really wants to wear a long dress but she’s afraid she’d look smaller because of it. But a nice flowy dress like the one that she’s wearing is perfect. The dress made her look tall actually.

But how about if you’re really not into dresses?! Can you still come to a Luau Party?

Luau DOESN’T only mean dress to kill! You can of course wear shorts or beach pants and be as hot as the girls in dresses. The key? Colors and texture! Wear something that’s kinda see-though. Very beach ang effect. It’ll be best if you can wear bikini’s underneath instead of your usual undies.

As I’ve mentioned on my last post, since I want to stand out and be me, I ditched the dress idea and went for shorty shorts instead. Pair my shorts with a colorful top and I’m all set. I wore a bikini that matches my shorts so just to minimize the colors that’s already on my palette.

Aem on the other hand came to the venue not prepared! She’s supposed to wear some board shorts or something. And of course, I didn’t let her. It’s great that I came to the venue with almost my entire beach closet. Just in case on of my ladies had a fashion emergency. I let Aem wore my white beach pants (so see through that she has to wear a boy leg underneath) and Cor has these black see-through top. Matchy-matchy and perfect!

DO wear accessories. But DON’T over-accessorize! Beads, bronze and gold are your best friend!

I would usually bring my beaded bracelets on the beach. And for Luau, they are also a great addition to your entire look. Colorful beaded bracelets do wonders of course! Although, there are dresses that doesn’t need further accessories. Like Jin’s and Cor’s dresses which both had wooden beads on the chest. No more necklace for them both. I just put dangling earrings on them. Jin' wore my colorful beaded earrings to match her dress while Nikki opted for the bronze dangling earrings to match her hairstyle. Cor ditched the accessories because her neck piece is kinda elaborate already. And of course, I achieve my Jasmine Trias peg thanks to Jin’s flower.

DO wear flip flops, strappy flats or slip-ons on Luau.

What you wear on your feet actually defines the entire outfit. Make your feet bare by wearing flip flops or strappy sandals or cover your feet with colorful slip-ons. Whatever you prefer, you can never go wrong with them.

My final tip is DON’T wear too much make up! Usually, BB creams are the best. They are moisturizer and foundation all in one. They make you look fresh and achieve ang No Make Up peg for sure! But you can also use moisturizers + little foundation. Bronzers are also a nice touch for a sun-kissed look and of course, pale pink lipsticks. Fresh lang peg!

Whew! I’m back! Been quite a while. Sorry for being MIA guys. I was sooooo busy with Gumiho I forgot to live. (For those wondering what the heck is Gumiho, it’s actually a Koreanovela I recently got addicted with. #StoryOfMyLife)

Anyway, here’s another super duper late post. :-) But I’m getting there guys. Bear with me! Matatapos ko din i-post ang lahat ng to!

And soooooo….

After a very short stint at Star City, my friends and I went to SM Mall of Asia to try Mongolian. Jay has been raving about it the whole week and he keeps on telling us that we should try it. I’m not an “eat-all-you-can” fan. I just think that dining in one is not sulit for me and most specially, G.p! I mean, both of us don’t eat much. And G.p eats as much as a cockroach. So sayang! But I’m with 3 guy friends and 1 more girl friend and all of them are super duper takaw. So I gave in.

It’s my first time to try a restaurant where you prepare your own food. As in everything is there and all you have to do is mix the stuffs you want in a bowl! I must admit I’m super hesitant about it. I mean, I can’t cook for crying out loud. And how am I supposed to know what to put and what to mix when I don’t even have the slightest idea of how my mom came up with an adobo! hahahaha…

The Dessert Table

Nevertheless, I still had fun. My friends and I kept on comparing our bowl of masterpieces with each other and declaring ours as the yummiest. Hahaha! Parang tanga lang kasi we kept on tasting the food nung iba tapos we’ll comment like feelingerang chef. “Kulang sa sauce.” or “Ay medyo maalat.” or “Sana you put a little of brown sugar.” hahahaha.. Mukhang tanga but it’s fun. I think all friends are like that.

Though I must tell you this, at the end of the day everyone accepted the fact that I made the yummiest bowl. Promise! Though I honestly don’t know how I came up with a yummy bowl of pancit. :-P Jay and Gelo thought it must be because I decided to add liver and peanuts on my bowl. Oh well! Whatever! Basta I came up with a super delicious meal that everyone would die for. hahahahha.. It made me remember that one time I cooked Bistek Tagalog for our out of town trip. It was my first out of town trip with G.p actually. And she says she fell in love with my Bistek Tagalog. But as much as I would like to do it again for her, I can’t! Coz again, its one of my “accidentally delicious meal”.

Our Bowl Numbers and the Dessert Plate

We ended the meal with a glass of halo-halo. Though I must admit that their halo-halo is nothing special. But their brownies and chocolate mousse are the best. I think I had 3 servings of both.

I highly recommend Mongolian to those of you who wants to try a different dining experience. Try to visit their Mall of Asia branch specially on Saturday nights so you could also enjoy the Fireworks. It was heaven to end your meal with a beautiful dance of lights in the sky. :-)

My friend Jin!